The Green Party says years of warnings from professional firefighters should have prompted Government action over Fire and Emergency New Zealand leadership long before Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden declared she had lost confidence in its chief executive.
Van Velden says she no longer has confidence in FENZ chief executive Kerry Gregory after discovering significant information had been withheld from her for a full year, despite external advice that she should be informed.
FENZ has clarified that Gregory himself has not been referred to the Serious Fraud Office. It says the matter referred to the SFO is historical, predates 2021 and concerns the organisation’s administration of the fire levy scheme.
Green Party Internal Affairs spokesperson Mike Davidson says professional firefighters have raised concerns about FENZ management for years and the Minister should have responded earlier.
Davidson says problems involving ageing and unreliable fire appliances, asset management, closed facilities, industrial relations and transparency have been on the public record for some time. The Greens argue responsibility now extends beyond the chief executive to the wider governance of FENZ.
Van Velden has asked the FENZ board to meet immediately as she seeks to restore confidence in the organisation. She says the latest breach is separate from a recent select committee inquiry that criticised longstanding failures involving the FENZ vehicle fleet.
The Greens are calling for the Minister to examine the board as a whole and establish an independent inquiry into FENZ’s capacity and capabilities.
For firefighters and communities around Aotearoa, the emerging controversy raises a bigger question — whether the organisation responsible for responding when everything goes wrong has the leadership, equipment and public confidence it needs to do the job.
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